1960s Kitchen Reno

When we first bought our 1960s home in historic Kaleden, BC, Canada, we didn’t know what the kitchen looked like. In this housing market, we bought the house practically sight unseen (we toured it with our realtor’s ipad) and there were no photos of the kitchen online. When we did look at the house in person a few days later we knew it had so much potential, but was going to need a full reno. I was pretty freaked out at the huge amount of work, I’m not going to lie. We had never taken something like this on before, and we learned a ton. All of the hard work was totally worth it when we look back at the “before” photos and now we can just enjoy our custom made cottage!

Looking back on the original photos, apart from the original kitchen being very TINY, it was pretty darn cute. Everything was custom built with wood, and it had the original starburst countertops, 60s daisy wallpaper, and a pretty window looking out onto the lawn. It was sad tearing out someone’s else’s dream home but there was no way we could have used it as is.

The kitchen had a party wall separating it from the small dining area. The dining room wall on the opposite side divided the kitchen/dining area from the living room.We were lucky enough to inherit the original 60s teak dining table and chairs that have been in the house since it was built. Everything was closed off and very small. Starting September 2017 we decided to rip everything out and start from scratch. Jay and I designed a galley style kitchen ourselves (with the help of the IKEA kitchen planner) and we started the 11 month journey of the kitchen reno!

Here’s a peak at the original kitchen, dining room, and the start of the major reno:

We decided we wanted warm woods, and white cabinets. We ended up with IKEA cabinets and an IKEA farmhouse sink because of the huge cost savings and we are so happy with them! They were about 1/3 of the price as name brand and honestly they have been great. We spent the extra money on nice appliances, countertops, and custom built floating shelves.

As you can see, we moved the dining room area in-between the kitchen and living room. It is more open concept, and I am actually loving being able to see whoever is in the living room when I’m cooking!

You can see a peak of our unfinished trim around the doors in the above photo. We are waiting for our new doors that will be put in next week (so excited!) and with the finished trim everything in this area will be complete! I also love our vintage accordion hat rack that we got from an Etsy shop. With a small home we have learned lots of space saving ideas that come in handy.

I think my favorite things in this kitchen are the schoolhouse lights and the grey tile. Lighting is so important, and I wanted something that fit our love of 1950s style.

I’ve been having so much fun finding pretty dishes to display on our shelves. I just bought a very pretty set of grey stoneware plates and dishes from Daiso – a Japanese dollar store and am loving them! Also found this beautiful green pottery bowl at a local heritage site, made by a potter from Nelson, BC.

I never dreamed I would get to design a whole kitchen and put together things that I loved. There’s definitely some things we would do differently if we were to do it again but overall we are super happy with the result! Thanks for reading! xo

Owner and curator of The French 75 - I love adventures, Christmas, vintage, and really really good coffee. Nothing makes me happier than sleeping in and sipping coffee with my husband on a wintry day with Carole King on the record player. I am always on the search for my next favorite place and my next favorite antique. Stay & read some of the thoughts here - and enjoy peeking at a few items in our store.